Bible Reading Program

Looking for a Bible Reading Program for 2014?  This booklet contains four different plans to choose from.  CLICK HERE to download the file.  Print double-sided w/ short edge binding and staple (or take to your local print shop or office supply store).

Follow the link below for more Bible Reading/Scripture Memory programs, workbooks, etc.

READ THE BIBLE!

For a sermon on New Year's Resolutions CLICK HERE.

THE PURPOSE

-        To maintain a daily walk with the Lord (Revelation 3:20).

-        To live in obedience to scripture (Deuteronomy 17:19).

-        To prepare yourself for the day of judgment (2 Timothy 2:15).

-        To gain a working knowledge of the Bible (Isaiah 28:9-10).

-        To cleanse the heart and purify the mind (Psalm 119:9-11).

-        To seek true, genuine success (Joshua 1:8).

THE PLAN

-        Read daily (Deuteronomy 17:19).

-        Read habitually (Job 23:12).

-        Read meditatively (Psalm 1:1-3).

-        Read prayerfully (Psalm 119:18).

-        Read thoroughly (Proverbs 30:5-6).

THE PROGRAM

Each month contains a chart with four reading plans to choose from:

-        Sequential: Read straight through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

-        Old Testament / New Testament: Read sequentially through both testaments simultaneously, with a daily reading passage from each.

-        Chronological / Historical: The arrangements of these daily readings are loosely based on the order of events and/or when the books were written.  This plan includes a number of days each month to catch up, get ahead, study other passages, or reflect on prior reading.

-        Sectional: This plan promotes variety by providing readings from 7 different sections of scripture – 1 for each day of the week.

Choose one of the charts.  Track your progress by marking the passages you have read.  Stay on track and complete the entire Bible in a year.

Effects of Hymn Singing

Passed along by a friend, from the Memoirs of hymn-writer Philip P. Bliss (late 1870s)...

On the stage at one of the Liverpool theaters, a comic singer came out before the footlights to sing. Just as he was about to commence his waggish melody, the tune of a sweet Sunday School hymn, learned before, came suddenly to mind, and so confused him that he completely forgot his part. He stood a moment trying to recall it, and then retired, covered with shame. The manager, enraged at his failure, and still more enraged at his apparently foolish explanation, paid him the remainder of his wages and ordered him at once to quit his service. Out of employment, he wandered about the city like the unclean spirit, seeking rest and finding none. His heart was full of curses, and to drown his mortification he drank deep and desperately, till his days and nights were one continual debauch. 

In the meantime, Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey began their meetings in Liverpool. The fame of the evangelists was in every mouth, and the young actor, hearing them discussed and ridiculed among his low associates, conceived the idea of writing a burlesque about them, to be put upon the stage. He sobered himself sufficiently to begin. But he felt he could not make his work complete without more "points" or "hits" to give it zest. So he determined to attend a meeting himself, and hear the men whom he intended to lampoon. He went, and the same power that in the sudden memory of that early hymn had driven him once from the stage arrested him and held him a reverent listener. At the close he remained among the penitent inquirers, and was soon led to accept the Lord Jesus as his Master. The young man is now in London, preparing himself to be a missionary. 

Often a remembered hymn will keep sacred hold of a wicked heart when nothing else can. That simple Sunday School song, to the poor comedian, was a voice come back from his by-gone and better days. In spite of himself it changed his fate, and led the way to the still better days beyond.

Who would join me in conjecturing that the same will never be said of CCM and the like?

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

Youth Trip 2013 Photobook

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Youth Rally 2013 Photobook

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How to Treat a Girl

I've spent most of the afternoon preparing some devotions to take on an upcoming youth trip and came across some notes for a young men's session on purity that was probably at least 5 years ago.

Haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd pass along part of those notes here.

HOW A YOUNG MAN SHOULD TREAT A GIRL

1.  Like God's daughter (2 Corinthians 4:14-18; Galatians 3:26).  Treat God's daughter like you would want someone to treat your daughter.

2.  Like a sister in Christ (1 Timothy 5:1-2).  Be no more romantic with a sister in Christ than you would with a sister in the flesh, and you'll be OK.

3.  Like somebody else's wife (1 Corinthians 7:1-2).  Many people involved in a relationship wrongly assume they are going to one day get married and take the liberty of acting like they're already husband and wife.  We all know that even the best of relationships have a chance of ending before they reach the altar (which is sometimes a good result if the purpose of dating or courting or whatever you call is to seek God's will in the selection of a marriage partner).  "I will have no physical contact with this girl that I wouldn't want another man having with my wife" would be a safe rule to follow.  A young man should conduct himself in such a way that he will have no regrets in the case that the two parties decide it is not God's will (or not their will) for them to be married.

4.  Like God is your chaperone (Jeremiah 23:23-24; Hebrews 13:5).  Because He is.  So don't do anything you'd be ashamed for Him to see, because He does.

With marriages falling apart all around us, it's more important now than ever for us to train our young people on how to make the second most important decision they'll make in their lives (who to marry), and how to prepare for and enter into that relationship.

How God Will Judge

So according to 1 Corinthians 3 and host of other scriptures, God will judge (1) our works, (2) our words, (3) every secret thing, and (4) the heart.  The question now to consider is HOW God will judge?  In what manner will this judgment seat of Christ be carried out?

1 Corinthians 3:13-15 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by FIRE; and the FIRE shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be BURNED, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by FIRE.

It is obvious from the passage that our works will be tried by – FIRE.

Now, I am a Bible literalist.  I believe that unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, what we read in the word of God is to be taken literally.  Which means I have no reason to believe that the fire of 1 Corinthians 3 – the judgment seat of Christ fire – is not a literal, burning fire. 

No explanation is given as the source of the fire, the size of the fire, the location of the fire, how our works pass through the fire, etc.  But there are some very interesting cross references that connect fire and judgment to a couple different things. 

What God Will Judge

The next stop in this study of the Judgment Seat of Christ is 1 Corinthians 3.  Here the phrase is not mentioned, but the event is described in greater detail.  This passage will form the basis for a deeper consideration of three points relating to this judgment:

1.  What God Will Judge

2.  How God Will Judge

3.  The Outcomes of this Judgment

Accepted of Him -- Part 2

Lessons learned from 2 Corinthians 5 regarding the judgment seat of Christ:

1.     We know, we have absolute confidence that we are on our way to heaven (vv. 1, 6, 8).

2.     So we’re laboring, not to get saved, but to live acceptably before the one who saved us (v. 9).

3.     This will only be possible if we walk by faith, believing the word of God (v. 7).

4.     Whether or not our works were acceptable to God will be revealed at the judgment seat of Christ (v. 10), where we will be rewarded or suffer loss, accordingly.

One more point to make from this chapter.  The very next verse (11) says:

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Accepted of Him -- Part 1

2 Corinthians 5:10 contains the second direct New Testament mention of the judgment seat of Christ.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Here’s what we have in the verse:

1.  We MUST all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (cr. Hebrews 9:27).

2.  The reason – to be rewarded for our deeds (cr. Ezekiel 12:14; Jeremiah 17:10).

3.  The first word of the verse – and this is what we’d like to focus on – is For…  What that means is that the statements of verse 10 are made to explain or give the reason for something else that is stated in the chapter.

Let’s start all the way back in verse 1 to find out what that is.

Giving Account to God -- Part 4

From Romans 14 and its cross references, we have garnered the following points, as they relate to the Judgment Seat of Christ:

I.  EVERY ONE OF US SHALL GIVE ACCOUNT

II.  EVERY ONE OF US SHALL GIVE ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF

III.  EVERY ONE OF US SHALL GIVE ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO GOD

IV.  GOD DOES NOT GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO US

Before we move on to the next New Testament passage on the Judgment Seat of Christ, there are three specific things for which the Bible says God will hold us accountable.  These are worthy of special mention:

A.  Our Influence

B.  Our Authority

C.  Our Words